The party was last night and the confection is done and dusted. As in eaten. It was thoroughly destroyed. But in glorious fashion as I'm sure it was completely nom-able.
I didn't take any pictures of assembly or make-age for several reasons: first, I was terrified it wasn't going to turn out. This was my first foray into actually fondanting a whole cake. With fondant that I made. But it was glorious and so much easier than anticipated! Second, it was a lot of busy work. I spent nearly a week crafting roses before I finally got into a groove the night before, sitting on my couch, modeling them under the mood-lighting of the Christmas tree while watching ghost hunting shows at 1 in the morning.
In between those times, I made fresh lime cake (which was a tweak of last year's Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with fresh lime zest and a little bit of lime juice in the batter...let me know if you want the exact recipe) for the top tier and then two giant chocolate cakes for the bottom tier. I killed two hand mixers in the process.
In the end I used 4 bags of marshmallows, 6 pounds of powdered sugar, 3 pounds of butter, 1 pound of chocolate, half a bottle of lemon extract and nearly 2 vials of luster dust. Here are all the recipes you could ever want for crafting your very own cake. I suggest you send your children away for the duration unless you want to go insane. :)
Chocolate Butter Cake
a.k.a. Mix Master Murderer
This cake is deep, dark, moist and chocolatey. With a hint of cinnamon in the background, it's decidedly sexy and actually very easy to make.
A word of warning, though...the batter for this cake is mixed in a curious way, dry ingredients and butter are beaten together and then you add the wet ingredients last. For this reason you will absolutely need a stand mixer, a heavy duty hand mixer, or a very sturdy mixing arm on your person. You will also need to scrape down your bowl and mix through it to make sure there are no random flour deposits hiding out in your batter, because they will be hiding in there. Trust me. Now onto the recipe!
3 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
3 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
3/4 cups freshly brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature (alternately, you can use decaffeinated coffee or room temperature water, but the coffee adds a dimension that makes the chocolate more chocolatey. If you opt out of using the coffee, add an extra teaspoon of vanilla to the water.)
3/4 cup room temperature water mixed with 1 teaspoon of vanilla
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch square cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
2. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for about 30 seconds. Add the butter and buttermilk and blend on low until moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Whisk the eggs,coffee and water together, and add to the batter in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating only until blended after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans; each pan will take about 3 1/4 cups of batter.
4. Bake for 38 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Carefully turn them out onto wire racks and allow to cool completely. Remove the paper liners only when they are cool.
Marshmallow Fondant
This tastes miles better than anything you could ever drop a pile of cash on pre-made ~seriously, go price that stuff, it's ridiculously expensive~ and will taste a million times better. That Wilton stuff? Yeeech!
It covers cakes beautifully and once you get a feel for how to make it, it's really easy.
16 ounces mini marshmallows (check the weight on your bag, most of them are 10.5 ounces, so you will need one and a half bags if this is the case)
2-5 tablespoons water
2 pounds C&H powdered sugar
Crisco
1. Put the marshmallows and 2 tablespoons water in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring until the marshmallows are completely melted.
3. Once the marshmallows are melted, put 3/4 of the powdered sugar on top of the melted marshmallows.
4. Heavily grease the counter where you will be working with Crisco. Then heavily grease your hands as well. Make sure you get them well coated. Keep the crisco nearby so you can dig into it if needed.
5. Mix the marshmallows and sugar together as well as you can, then dump out onto your greased counter.
6. Start to knead the mixture like bread dough. You will immediately see why have greased your hands. The fondant is incredibly sticky and messy at this stage, but keep kneading. Re-grease your hands and the counter as needed.
7. It will take you about 5-10 minutes of kneading to get a smooth, elastic ball. Add the rest of the powdered sugar a little at a time until it is no longer sticky. If the fondant is too dry, add a 1/2 tablespoon of water at a time and knead it in.
8. When you are done, you can roll it out and use it right away if there are no bits of powdered sugar in it. Otherwise, coat the fondant with a layer of crisco, wrap it in plastic wrap and put the ball in a zippered plastic bag, making sure to squeeze all the air out.
Modeling Chocolate
I use this for roses, but you can make anything out of it for decorations. Let it air dry and it can be stored in a cool dry place for weeks. Just don't try to dye it unless you get coloring for chocolate or it will sieze up. I learned this the hard way. Buy the pre-colored candy melts and save yourself a lot of headaches.
9 ounces chocolate candy melts*
1/4 cup corn syrup
1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
2. Add the corn syrup and stir until completely mixed. It will get harder almost immediately. Also be aware that the corn syrup will darken the color of your chocolate slightly once you add it.
3. Spread out the mixture onto a piece of foil or waxed paper and let it cool.
4. Once cool, knead the mixture slightly and wrap in a piece of plastic wrap and then put it in a zipper bag. Knead the mixture again to warm it up before rolling or modeling into shapes.
*This recipe is for vanilla candy melts, not milk or dark chocolate. The corn syrup ratio is different for those but I'm too tired to look it up right now...
